It's been a few months and tonight it's 1C outside so the fire is roaring. This has proven the box is sealed very well. It's also caused an issue. With that major air leak plugged up cold air is now being dragged in from other locations. In this case it's almost entirely coming from the other side of the basement which was 1/2 finished tightly by me when I did the coldroom 1/4 finished poorly but better then nothing by the previous owners and 1/4 original 1960's air leaks.
This entire side of the basement drops 2 degrees C every hour when I close the door between the two sides. The major leaks appear to be where my smoke tests previously showed, mainly at the sill plate.
the major issue is the bedrooms are right upstairs so this area getting cold affects things badly.
Anyways I could seal these leaks and wait until new leaks are found but I think I have a solution. the chimney for the woodstove actually has 3 flues. 1 to the fireplace upstairs, one to the woodstove and 1 empty that used to be to the oil furnace that is now gone. I can easily open a hole into that empty flue and add a 3" pipe that will draw outside air down the chimney and empty out just to the side and slightly above the woodstove. It's not an optimal outside air intake for the woodstove but I believe it will be better then just drawing randomly through the walls.
My only concern is it could draw smoke down the chimney and dump it into the room. If It turns out this way turning the intake a different way and popping it out of a basement wall to outside isn't a massive amount more work.
Once again fixing 1 thing leads to another.
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